


Not Lost, Only Hiding

by armouredescort



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Pre-Canon, Pre-Kerberos Mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 02:50:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9215453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armouredescort/pseuds/armouredescort
Summary: An exploration on how Keith was drawn out to the Blue Lion's hiding place, and how he knew exactly where to be when he was needed.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lexxicona](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Lexxicona).



The presence had always been in Keith's life. It guided with a light touch, never demanding Keith to go one way or the other. With no path he could discern, it ambled away into the distance.

Yet Keith never doubted it, never gave up. When it faded, he considered it a test of whether he was listening to the presence. So he listened, and the presence never left him.

There was always a warmth when he found the presence again. It seemed to be proud at his cleverness.

Anyone else would call it ambition and that it was self motivated, that the presence that Keith felt was really his consciousness feeding him towards where he wanted to go. To explain to them that the presence was external, but only he could hear it and feel the pull, well that – that would land him squarely on the side of failed psych tests and being grounded by the Galaxy Garrison until further notice.

Which wasn't what the presence needed. It needed him there. It needed him in the sky.

It sang and seemed to purr in delight as Keith went from simulator to actual plane, the noise filling him with such sheer exhilaration that Keith almost didn't want to come back down.

The purring sensation was the same when Keith met one Takashi Shirogane for the first time. It was almost too overwhelming for him to handle that Keith almost missed everything that Shiro said to him in greeting.

Shiro was involved in this. It was too soon to tell him, though. Something wasn't quite right, like there were other pieces nearby but Keith couldn't separate them out from Shiro's link.

"What are you thinking about?" asked Shiro as he took a seat next to Keith in the Garrison mess hall.

Soon. Shiro would know soon. When his mission was done, then Keith would tell him and they could figure it out together. Shiro would believe him.

"How bland this food is," said Keith.

Bland but packed with all of the nutrients they needed for their training at the Garrison. Or so the cooks claimed. Most of it held the approximate shape of what it claimed to be. Flavour was way out.

"Yeah, it's not the best," agreed Shiro.

Keith poked his "dessert", more chalk than chocolate mousse, smearing it around in its cup to make it look like he'd eaten it.

"Three days until you leave," said Keith.

"I'll be back," said Shiro, leaning over to steal some of Keith's steamed carrots.

Shiro was right. He'd be back. He was leaving but he was going to be back and then they could talk about the presence that hung around Keith.

Shiro was coming back.

He was.

He was.

He wasn't.

When Keith woke up in a cold sweat and the presence screaming in a pain he'd never heard before, he knew from the absence of the link between him and Shiro that Shiro was gone.

Pilot error. Shiro wasn't the sort to make a mistake. Not like this, not when it counted.

Keith could feel the presence trying to lead him to others.

He ignored it. For the first time in his life, Keith ignored it, and grieved for his friend for as long as the Galaxy Garrison allowed it. Which, as Keith found out, was three school days. Then they reminded him he was falling behind on schoolwork and Keith begrudgingly went to class, furious that they could be so insensitive.

As if schoolwork would matter when Shiro was dead.

The morning after he went back, Keith woke up standing on the edge of the rooftop of the main barracks, staring into the distance. He yelped and fell back from the edge, banging his knee on the lip that ran around the roof.

It happened again. It kept happening. Keith kept ending up on the roof with no clue as to how he got there.

Then he realised it was the presence trying to tell him something. It had decided that it was going to make him listen, be forceful in a way it had never been before. He'd always had a choice in the past.

It seemed he had passed the point of no return, of where his choices had lead him to something he needed to be a part of. Something that demanded he was a part of.

Shiro. Shiro was still out there. The link was faint but the presence plucked at the thin energy between Keith and Shiro and demanded that he listen to the noise it made. It was soft and sweet and pure.

Then the other links plucked and sang, something that Keith had never heard of, something that no earthly instrument could produce, showing him that there were others that needed to come to the Garrison, needed to be there instead of him.

That last thought startled Keith. Hadn't he done what the presence asked? He'd thought he wasn't supposed to leave.

But he was on the roof again.

What could possibly be in the desert?

The presence purred with a glowing warmth whenever he looked out that way. There was something there, something that wanted to be found.

Keith secured a hut. Got himself expelled. Bought a hoverbike, bought supplies, bought everything the presence took an interest in, knowing that it would be important somehow. Started to try to document it. Tried to find it for sure.

The presence taught him how to pluck the links, to make the music he had heard on the rooftop, and every now and then, Keith would touch the links, always starting with Shiro's, and then moving onto the ones he didn't know. They had never met. Sometimes Keith had felt them nearby in the Garrison but it had always been too hard to properly track them down, like there was an interference. Keith took that as it being the wrong time to meet them.

He would meet them eventually.

He'd narrowed it down to a circle of caves in the desert when Shiro came crashing back into his life.

The presence shouted, the link was strengthened, and for all of Keith's preparations he wasn't ready for any of what happened after.

When they came across the Blue Lion, she apologised to Keith for not being His Lion, and chose Lance instead.

 _Do not be upset. Your Lion still calls you. She was too far away to find you, my good Paladin. You did what was right, even when it went against what was law,_ Blue said. _She will like you._

And then the presence withdrew, leaving a newer one in her wake.


End file.
